Cold Exit

The facility was alive with chaos.

Jessica, Leanna, and Olivia sprinted down the sterile corridors, the sharp wail of alarms stabbing at their ears. The rhythmic thud of boots behind them signaled the incoming security forces. Their window for escape was closing fast.

Jessica barely had time to process what had happened—Elias turning on them, aligning himself with Vanguard. The betrayal burned, but there was no time for second-guessing. Survival first. Questions later. They'd left Elias behind, or maybe he’d left them first

Leanna pointed ahead. "Stairwell, to the left!"

Olivia skidded to a stop at the door, slamming her shoulder against it. It didn’t budge.

"It’s locked!" she hissed, fumbling with her hacking device. "I just need a minute!"

Jessica turned, raising her weapon. The guards were closing in. "You don’t have a minute!"

Leanna grabbed a flash grenade from her pack, pulled the pin, and threw it down the hallway. "Cover your eyes!"

The explosion of light and sound sent the guards staggering back. Olivia worked faster, fingers dancing over her device. "Almost—there!"

The door clicked open just as Jessica yanked Olivia through. Leanna followed, slamming the door shut behind them. The stairwell echoed with their frantic breathing.

"How do we get out?" Olivia gasped.

Leanna scanned the schematics on her tablet. "There’s a maintenance tunnel two floors down. If we get to it before they lock the facility down, we have a shot."

Jessica took point, leaping down the stairs two at a time. They crashed through a maintenance access door, finding themselves in a dimly lit tunnel. The air smelled of rust and damp metal.

"Go, go!" Jessica urged.

Their footsteps pounded against the metal flooring as they ran. It was slick with condensation. The air smelled like cold iron and something burnt. A heavy blast door loomed ahead—their last obstacle.

"I got this," Olivia panted, already setting up her hack.

Olivia cursed the encryption like it was personal. Jessica didn’t have that kind of patience. She turned, raising her gun as another team of guards stormed into the tunnel. She fired, forcing them into cover. "Hurry, Liv!"

Leanna grabbed a fallen guard’s rifle, adding suppressing fire. Olivia cursed. "They’ve encrypted this—"

Jessica’s mind raced. No time. No options. Then she saw it—a manual override lever by the wall. Manual overrides were old tech. Old enough to trust. She ran to it and yanked with all her strength. The mechanism groaned, sparks flying as the door started grinding open.

"GO!"

They dove through the opening just as Olivia finished the hack, forcing the blast door shut behind them. The echoes of gunfire faded.

Silence.

They lay on the cold metal floor, gasping for breath. Finally, Leanna sat up, brushing sweat from her brow. "That… was way too close."

Jessica forced herself to her feet, her hands still shaking. "We need to move. Vanguard won’t let us get far."

Olivia nodded. "We disappear tonight."

Jessica exhaled, her mind already racing to their next move. They'd survived. Not clean. Not clever. Just alive. And that would have to be enough.